EARTH SAYS:

Humans are solely responsible for Climate Change in the world today. The IPCC or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed that there is a “global scientific consensus that human action was indeed affecting global climate patterns”. (W. M. Adams, Green Development, p.17, 3rd ed, New York).

Here is an Article from NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Link: http://climate.nasa.gov/causes

“Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the “greenhouse effect”1 — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.

Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are described as “forcing” climate change. Gases, such as water vapor, which respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are seen as “feedbacks.”

Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include:

Water vapor. The most abundant greenhouse gas, but importantly, it acts as a feedback to the climate. Water vapor increases as the Earth’s atmosphere warms, but so does the possibility of clouds and precipitation, making these some of the most important feedback mechanisms to the greenhouse effect.

Carbon dioxide (CO2). A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by a third since the Industrial Revolution began. This is the most important long-lived “forcing” of climate change.

Methane. A hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human activities, including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with domestic livestock. On a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but also one which is much less abundant in the atmosphere.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Synthetic compounds of entirely of industrial origin used in a number of applications, but now largely regulated in production and release to the atmosphere by international agreement for their ability to contribute to destruction of the ozone layer. They are also greenhouse gases.” Link: http://climate.nasa.gov/causes

According to W. M. Adams in his book Green Development, IPCC noted the following:

1. The Third Assessment Report (2001) on World Climate Change found a – 100 year trend in temperature (1901 to 2000) was +0.06 degrees Centigrade;

2. The Fourth Report in 2007 noted that the period 1906-2005 had been hotter at +0.74 degrees Centigrade (IPCC, 2007a).

In its recently released Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there’s a more than 90 percent probability that human activities over the past 250 years have warmed our planet.

The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million in the last 150 years. The panel also concluded there’s a better than 90 percent probability that human-produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed increase in Earth’s temperatures over the past 50 years.

It’s reasonable to assume that changes in the sun’s energy output would cause the climate to change, since the sun is the fundamental source of energy that drives our climate system.

Indeed, studies show that solar variability has played a role in past climate changes. For example, a decrease in solar activity is thought to have triggered the Little Ice Age between approximately 1650 and 1850, when Greenland was largely cut off by ice from 1410 to the 1720s and glaciers advanced in the Alps.

But several lines of evidence show that current global warming cannot be explained by changes in energy from the sun:

Since 1750, the average amount of energy coming from the Sun either remained constant or increased slightly.

If the warming were caused by a more active sun, then scientists would expect to see warmer temperatures in all layers of the atmosphere. Instead, they have observed a cooling in the upper atmosphere, and a warming at the surface and in the lower parts of the atmosphere. That’s because greenhouse gasses are trapping heat in the lower atmosphere.

Climate models that include solar irradiance changes can’t reproduce the observed temperature trend over the past century or more without including a rise in greenhouse gases.

And population explosion, social extremes and continuing urban development. I feel we cannot address our selves till we can recognise our part in our whole, and relate as apart with the whole self and being.

Thank you for all this tremendous information- it really is shocking that humans are having such a negative impact on the whole planet! What is even more baffling though is that we know how to reverse these processes through reforestation, more organic and less intensive farming, emissions reduction etc yet we don’t seem to be able to get enough international momentum going to actually do that. How can this be addressed?
Thank s for stopping by my blog btw, and for all the work you are putting into this site. It is a wonderful resource and I for one will be keeping up with developments here. Thanks again and best wishes , Roberta

you’re welcome Roberta…i hope everybody can start in a small way in their community…this is what i think will happen because the earth is so huge and a single act can make a difference once it is multiplied all over the world…best wishes and see you around in the blogsphere.

Reblogged this on United States Hypocrisy and commented:
Scientists are not being ambiguous when they say that Climate Change (or “global warming” if you will) is being caused by man. That the current crisis is indeed a man-made disaster is the general consensus among up to 97% of the scientific community, as opposed to a mere 3% who dispute it. If it hadn’t been made into such a political issue, the scientific consensus on Climate Change would’ve been enough to shut off further debate.

Caleb Gee: yes, you will…and thanks for believing in this…succeeding posts listed down suggestions on how to cope with climate change and how to decrease or abolish its threats to the atmosphere and global community beginning with local initiatives.